I know—facing your emotions can feel overwhelming, like a weight you’ve been carrying for far too long. But what if the very thing you’re avoiding holds the key to your deepest healing and liberation?

It’s not easy, but embracing your emotions is the path to reclaiming your power, and I’m here to guide you through it.

[TUNE IN HERE] to this weeks episode of RAW & RADIANT where I dive deep into the exploration of our emotions.

The Power of Embracing Emotions

It’s natural to want to run from uncomfortable emotions. Fear, shame, guilt, and sadness—they can all feel so heavy, so consuming, that it seems easier to shove them down, ignore them, and keep going. I used to do that too. But here’s what I discovered: by avoiding those emotions, I was keeping myself trapped in a cycle of pain. My healing didn’t begin until I stopped running and allowed myself to feel everything I had been avoiding.

Think about it this way: emotions are energy in motion. When we resist them, that energy gets stuck in our bodies, creating tension and blocking us from living freely. When we allow ourselves to feel, that energy begins to move again, clearing the way for healing and transformation.

Breathwork: A Tool for Transformation

Breathwork is one of the most powerful tools I’ve found to help process emotions. Why? Because the breath brings us into the present moment, where healing can truly begin. Each breath you take is an opportunity to release stored emotions, reconnect with your body, and step closer to your true self.

When I began my own Breathwork practice, I noticed a huge shift. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by my emotions, I started to feel more in control. I could sit with my feelings, process them, and let them go—without getting stuck in the cycle of fear or avoidance.

This is why Breathwork is so transformative: it helps you release what no longer serves you, making space for the life you’re meant to live.

How to Start Embracing Your Emotions

Embracing your emotions doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It’s all about creating safe spaces and allowing yourself to feel. Here are some practical steps to help you start:

 1. Create a Safe Space: Find a quiet place where you can be alone with your emotions, whether it’s in nature, your car, or even a shower. Let yourself sit in that space and feel whatever comes up without judgment.

 2. Practice Breathwork: Start with a simple breathwork practice, like the one I guide you through in my RAW & RADIANT podcast episode “Embracing Your Emotions: The Path to Healing & Liberation”. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and focus on letting your emotions move through you.

 3. Allow Yourself to Feel: Don’t rush the process. Let the emotions flow naturally, and remind yourself that feeling them is the first step to healing. The more you practice this, the more you’ll realize that your emotions are here to guide you, not hurt you.

My Real-Life Examples of Emotional Release

There have been moments in my own journey where I’ve felt emotions bubble up at the most unexpected times. I remember driving down the North Cascade Highway, feeling a wave of sadness and heaviness hit me out of nowhere. Instead of suppressing it, I pulled over, placed my hand on my heart, and allowed the tears to flow.

It was in that moment that I realized how powerful it is to simply allow ourselves to feel. That wave of emotion didn’t consume me—instead, it moved through me, and I felt lighter afterward. This is the power of embracing emotions: when we stop resisting them, they become a source of liberation.

Key Takeaways:

 1. Your emotions are guides, not obstacles. Embracing them can lead to deep healing.

 2. Breathwork is a powerful tool that helps you process emotional blocks and reconnect with your true self.

 3. Healing isn’t linear, but every time you allow yourself to feel, you’re taking a step toward liberation.

 4. Practical tools like creating safe spaces, practicing breathwork, and letting emotions flow can help you reclaim your power.

Are you ready to stop running from your emotions and start embracing the life you were always meant to live?

Grab a cup of tea, cozy up in your favorite blanket and listen to my latest podcast episode on RAW & RADIANT, “Embracing Your Emotions: The Path to Healing & Liberation”, where I guide you through a short breathwork session to help you release heavy emotions in real-time.

Take the first step today by exploring more tools for healing:

 • Reclaiming Power Through Breathwork: My Path to Emotional Freedom  🎧

  • How Breathwork Helped Me Reclaim My Power  📖

Your emotions aren’t here to hurt you—they’re here to guide you. Allow yourself to Breathe through them, and you’ll find the freedom and liberation you’ve been searching for.

Let's stay connected! I would love for you to share your thoughts below. 

Remember keep shining, and let your light guide you toward the life you’re meant to live.

With love and radiant light,

Victoria 🤍

TRANSCRiPT:

Victoria Starr:
Welcome back to another episode of Raw & Radiant. I am your host, Victoria Starr, and today I am diving in this solo episode of something really raw and real, deeply personal. It's healing from toxic relationships and learning to embrace my emotions as I navigate this path to living my most authentic life, my most authentic dream life, showing up vulnerably. And in this radiance, that is the title of this podcast. And that's what I want to bring into this space today. So I want you to, if you're in a space to just close down your eyes for a moment, And imagine that you've just walked away from a toxic relationship. Maybe it was a manipulative relationship, a narcissistic abusive relationship. And now as you've walked away from it, you're sitting in this quiet space and you're sitting in the unknown. These emotions that you have been feeling in the past, that you have so gently pushed down and shoved aside, start to creep back in. They start to bubble up. Maybe it's fear, shame, and guilt. they all can come crashing in and you wonder this inkling within you that did I make a mistake or will I ever feel whole again and you wonder if you'll ever truly heal. So I know that feeling all too well, and I've been there myself, and I questioned my own self-worth. I questioned my ability to move forward. I question, am I feeling stuck in a life that didn't feel like truly, really my own? And honestly, I used to run from my emotions too. I was just like you. I ran from them. I shoved them down. I avoided them. I swept them under the rug. And I thought by avoiding this discomfort, it was a whole lot easier than being trapped, being trapped in the patterns, being trapped in the fear, being trapped in those same cycles of pain. But what I recognized is that these emotions that I was carrying, no matter how heavy they felt, they were not my enemies. They were actually the keys and the invitation to my liberation. What if these emotions that you're feeling, they're guiding you back to your truest self? They're showing you this way to freedom, this way to live and to heal together simultaneously. You get to have both. You get to be free and you get to heal. So there was a time in my life when I was like you caught in this toxic relationship. I had a partner that left me feeling small, undermined, unworthy. There was a whole lot of manipulation. And I thought by suppressing my emotions, by keeping my head down and by playing small and just surviving that I could protect myself. But also, once I made the leap out of that relationship, once I chose me, once I chose to never abandon myself again, I realized something very freaking profound. That the emotions that I was avoiding, that shame, that guilt, and that fear, they weren't obstacles, but truly, authentically, maybe they were my guides. Could they be showing me the way out of the darkness that I was experiencing? Could they be showing me the way to the light of liberation and the light of healing? Because we're on this journey of this human reality, and honestly, truly, right here, right now, I will say it, we are never truly healed. But we can simultaneously live both. This journey of healing is a lifetime of liberation. It's a lifetime of sitting with these emotions. So I remember that day that I chose me. I chose to never abandon myself again. I literally felt like the shell of a person, a shell that was deeply disconnected from my truth. I was disconnected from my emotions. I was even disconnected from my purpose here on earth. I felt these feelings of being lost and numb and overwhelmed. But in those dark moments, In the moments where I questioned my reality, something began to shift. I knew that by sitting in the emotions, realizing that the emotions not running from the emotions, that they weren't going to harm me, that they were literally there to set me free. They were offering and guiding me this path to this emotional liberation, this liberation into a life of living a life of my dreams. Ah, heaviness. So I stopped running. It was time and time again, bringing awareness into when I was running those emotions and I made the conscious decision. It wasn't like one and done. It's continually coming back to recognizing when I'm running from the emotion that I made the decision. to be with the emotions, to fully feel the emotions and to listen to what they were trying to tell me. It's almost like this wave, the tsunami wave. If I avoided the emotions, that the next motion would come in bigger and stronger. And that I began to slowly heal. Like I said, it's not one and done. It's not this path of linear healing. It's this ebb and flow. It is this trajectory of up and down, like a wave riding these waves of emotions. But I started to reconnect with myself, with my truth and the life that I was always meant to live on this earth. One of my lifelines, truly and honestly, to begin to process the pain was coming back to my breath. Each breath was a moment to step towards connecting to my soul self, connecting to my power and living authentically. And I'm going to reiterate this over and over again. It wasn't easy. It isn't easy and it doesn't happen overnight, but I'm here to be proof. I'm here to be that rock solid foundation that every moment of this discomfort is a path to your liberation. Let me say that again. I am here to be your rock solid foundation. You don't need to judge the emotions. You don't need to criticize the emotions and no longer shove them under the rug. Please, please, please. I'm inviting you into stepping into feeling those emotions. Maybe even changing the verbiage that you use around these emotions. It's just simply energy and motion. So I want to take you on a little breath work. practice that I have used something that has been really, really powerful for me and moving through these emotions when they're coming up is simply to close down my eyes. And if you're doing this driving, if you're listening to the podcast, if you're allowing me to be in your space while you're going for a walk, please make sure you're in a safe space. Don't close down your eyes if you're walking or driving. It's so odd that I need to add in that caveat, but Make sure that you're in a safe space. And if you can, sit down. If you're walking and if you're in nature, maybe sit your bum onto the earth. That is so juicy. And I want you to close down your eyes. And if you're driving, just simply notice where you're breathing from. I want you to tap into the breath as it comes in through your nose. And I want you to fully inhale into this, what I call this 360 degree inhale into your belly. So into your belly, into the side body and into the back body. Fully bring that breath in through your nose. And then as you exhale, I want you to open your mouth and I want you to fully surrender, fully let go. No more gripping or grasping or holding on, just audibly exhale. Breathe in just like that one more time, breathing in that full 360 degree breath from your belly to your side body to your back body, fully experiencing the richness of your breath, witnessing and watching your body as it begins to slow down, allowing yourself this opportunity to observe whatever emotion there is. So breathing in that pattern maybe for four to six more times, And maybe just soften and witness, creating this space for the safety for these emotions to be here, knowing that they're here to guide you into your own liberation. And if they start to overwhelm you, just simply, maybe tactile, touch your own body, touch your own skin, recognizing that you can create this own safety within your body. And if the tears begin to flow, that is so beautiful. Invite them in. I see you, I witness you, and I hold you. And when you are ready, if you need to take a pause, if you need to pause this podcast, do so. Allow yourself to feel and to shake off anything that is heavy and holding you down. And when you're ready, gently bring, if you can, a smile back to your face. It doesn't have to be big. And slowly open your eyes. And I want to offer in this space that you are so brave. You are so fucking brave to leap into this path of healing. You are so courageous in your journey to liberation. That's where it begins. It's offering you those nuggets of wisdom, those nuggets of bravery, those nuggets of courage, because what you have experienced in the past no longer defines you. You're not living it anymore. This chapter of your life is behind you and now it's time to focus and reclaim your self-worth. To reclaim and heal those wounds. To move forward into a life that you were always meant to freaking live. Your soul came here for a purpose and the light that's within you is meant to shine. I am here as proof. I am here as a guide. I am here to show you that you can change. And I also want to offer this practical tip that has helped me and my healing process, is that when you're feeling these feelings of overwhelm, I get you, I see you, and my… healing journey of these traits that have been patterned into my being is that they come and go and I never know when they're here. As a matter of fact, yesterday I was simply driving down the road and this magical vortex of the North Cascade Highway I simply felt the tears and the heaviness that was coming through. I had no idea why I don't have to have a reason, but as I was driving down the road, I simply allowed the tears to flow. And there was a moment I didn't need to pull over and I did. And I honored that. And I put a hand on my heart and a hand on my chest or a hand on my heart and a hand on my belly. And I just allow the emotions to flow through me. Hmm, then allow the overwhelmed to move through me, taping, taking in those breaths and to witness and watch and not attach and not put any judgment or shame or fear. Hmm. And just allow myself to be in this place of being and this growth. And maybe for you, it's sitting in nature. Like I said, finding the safe space that allows you to feel these emotions, finding yourself and the safety of your car. There's been many a times where I've literally screamed, screamed in the car. I've word vomited in the car. I've literally felt like I was wanting to purge the words out of me, this energy, this darkness out of me. Or maybe it's an opportunity for those of you that have a shower and don't live in a van to allow the emotions to flow through you as you're standing in this hot shower. It's almost as if you're envisioning this water coming down over your head and this energy, this toxic energy, this overwhelm, this fear, this low self-worth is washing down your body, down your feet into the drain of the shower. So again, I invite you to don't judge and don't rush it. Just let it all flow. There is no linear path to this healing journey. It is an opportunity to witness how you get to grow, how you get to evolve, how you get to liberate your soul. And so helping you to reconnect to your emotions, giving you the invitation to reconnect to your emotions is being in this process of self-discovery, self-empowerment, and ultimately your liberation. So if you're on this path to healing, and I want you to know that you're not alone, I want you to know that healing from these toxic relationships, these narcissistic manipulative relationships, that's one of the hardest things you'll ever do is choosing you. But once you do, you are not alone. That is the most empowering choice that you can ever make. So again, don't be afraid to feel your emotions. They're your path to freedom. They're your path to liberation. And remember, remember this deep into your core. You have the power to reclaim your life. You have the power to heal and you have the power to live authentically as your soul's desires. It all flowed through me. I feel invigorated. I have full body goosebumps right now. Like I am so lit up, pouring into your cup. And I want you to know that again, I am the rock solid foundation. I am the spark. I am the light of choosing you. So I am here to just encourage you to be seen, to be heard, to be witnessed. And also if this episode resonated with you, Maybe just one sentence, one paragraph, I invite you to take the first step today to share this episode with somebody else, to embrace your emotions with this deep love and this compassion. And maybe just 1%, can you see how they can guide you into healing, into freedom, into liberation and share it? Because the more you share, the more you show up for you, you are the ripple, you are the energy that transmutes into those around you. So taking a deep breath in through my nose. I'm sighing it out with a smile upon my face. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. Thank you so much for joining me in my rawness. And if you found this message helpful, please, please, please like, subscribe. And if you haven't already, Please join me in sharing this episode with as many people as you possibly can. Rate this episode, rate the podcast. It helps me to bring more wisdom, more nuggets into people that are on this journey also. So keep shining your beautiful light and keep living your authentic truth. Until next time, beautiful soul. You are the heart and soul of Living Raw and Radiant. Take this energy, this courage, and infuse it into every moment of your life. Remember, you have the permission to choose you. I invite you to stay connected, keep shining your light, and continue to embody the essence of Living Raw and Radiant. Together, we are igniting a movement of empowerment, authenticity, and soulful living. Until next time, my friends, keep living your soul's desires.